The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-30
PERSONALITY IN FICTION,
Book Chat for June.

Book Chat for June.
 The secret of the power of many o the great novels of the past is theil strong individuality. It is this that makes characters real, and it is real. mss only that can survive. It is not necessary that each character should bt tagged "virtue," "honor," "meanness,' , "bravery" or whatever his peculiari- ties may be, yet his individuality, the aggregate of his qualities of heart and mind should be so strongly living, SC essential and so positive that the care full reader could say: "Here, Ferdin- and did wrong to his ideal" i" There he was inconsistent with his own life- work" "It would be impossible for him to think and act thus" We should be able to speak as positively of the doings of genuine character ill fiction as we indignantly deny the possibility of our friend doing a cer- tain mean act of which he is accused While the Individuality is preserved there need be no eccentricity in word phrase or hobby. To be individual the character need not exclaim con- stantly: "Oh! Land of Jupiter !" it is not necessary that he should walk on his toes, punch his neighbor with his elbows, swear by his uncle's ghost, wear gaudy neckties, have a special tondness for dogs without tails, or ex : hibit any other Identification brands.
 Men in real life are not so strongly marked as this, yet there is in every man around us an Individuality so strong that we instinctively bow to it at every point. Were we to narrate any story to six friends separately, we would tell it differently to each. Without any conscious exercise of the will, the mind of the speaker instinct ively gauges the mind and character istics of the nearer, and adapts and conforms the story to his peculiarities, bringing more strongly into relief one episode, sOftening or entirely emitting another, and throwing varied inter- pretations on incidental issues and de- tails. Our whole life with our fellow man is our recognition of his indi- viduality and our adapting ourselves to it. This must be so whether con- sciously or as a reflex mental action. If this then is true in real life we have right to demand the same individu- ality in the best fiction.
 The great and lasting influence that Dickens has eyer held over the world, must be in the strong, positive indi- viduality of his characters. Three or four qualifying words to the name of any one of them makes him revive be- fore us as an actuality-P -P,ckWack, be- nevolent, elderly self-satisfied gentle man, who advises and guides his friends; Sdm Weller, the incarnation of fun, shrewdness, archness and cun- ming; Wilkins Micawber, a most un- practical half-clever man great speech maker, letter. writer, projector of bubble schemes, always waiting for something to turn up; Mrs. Nickle6y, weak, vain, delightfully."- conceited, with tenderness for long irrelevant stories; Rec. No. Chad6and, a canting hypocrite, who, while posing as a "chosen vessep despisiDg mundane pleasures, has keen eye on the ''flesh- pots"; Squeers, vulgar, ignorant, quack schoolmaster, with a minimum of intellect, sustained by a maximum of over bearing brutal, meanness. Their words have become proverbs; it is the characters that speak, not Dick ems, the author. Their names are ap- piled as most striking epithets "He is Urioh Heep," ''She was a genuine M's. Jeila6y." "The Faqtns of to-day" are all thoroughly expressive. They have all the force of deep biog- raphies, not of imaginary characters, but of real living ones. The pictures are composite photographs, the result of the union of strong individualities. moral, mental and physical, by an artist who feels and makes us feel their truth.
 Whether or not Dickens has carried this power too far in certain of his conceptions, does not for the moment matter, nor does it affect the lesson to be taken from it. The direction and aim was right, and the character always rose superior to the plot in which it was developed. Not 50 in many ot the novels of to-day. In these the characters are mere puppets, used to develop plot instead of being developed by it. What they say no more expresses their individuality than the spelling lessons, recited by a scholar, represents his feelings. Every word uttered is utilitarian; it is the authors means of leading up to his climax, while with great writers the latter is merely the incidental.